Elizabeth Loboa Named New SMU Provost
Elizabeth Loboa will become SMU’s provost and vice president for academic affairs on July 6, 2020.
Loboa will be responsible for the overall quality of teaching, scholarship, and research, as well as all aspects of academic life in her new role.
She’s vice chancellor for strategic partnerships and dean and Ketchum professor for the College of Engineering at the University of Missouri.
“Dr. Loboa is joining SMU at an exciting time as we launch a new graduate school and strengthen our commitment to both world-changing research and teaching,” SMU President R. Gerald Turner said in a statement. “Her proven track record in building and supporting partnerships both inside and outside the academy is exactly what we are looking for as SMU reaches out for collaborations that serve both Dallas and our global community.”
Loboa was instrumental in the largest capital research project ever undertaken at the University of Missouri – the $221 million NextGen Precision Health Institute. She worked to bring together the assets of five MU colleges – Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources, Arts & Science, Engineering, Medicine, and Veterinary Medicine – in partnership with the Truman VA Hospital, the MU Research Reactor, and MU Healthcare.
“Such collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches are key to academic success,” she said in a statement. “Major changes occurring in higher education require that universities work creatively and collaboratively because innovation lies at the intersection of different fields, different disciplines, and different backgrounds. Making sure we work at those intersections will create real opportunities for SMU, and I am thrilled at the opportunity to pursue them.”
Loboa joined the University of Missouri as dean of the College of Engineering in October 2015 and previously served as associate chair and professor of the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, and as a professor of materials science and engineering at North Carolina State University.
She replaces former provost and vice president for academic affairs Steven C. Currall, who left SMU to become the president of the University of South Florida on July 1, 2019.
